The day me and my Phelan buddy (Mike Heff) got sponsored by Pharmacy Donny showed us Hermans sponsor me video for the shop and said we just put this kid on.
I would skate with the Pharmacy dudes every 1 to 2 months and Herman would progress like crazy every single time.
One week he learned back lips on the claremont skatepark rail, the next week he attempted them down the Telephone rail (a low 5 stair rail in Chino) got a board to the face and took off runnin yellin he saw blue (I actually have a VHS tape of this). Not much long he did it down the Wilshire 10.
After backllippin Wilshire 10 he wanted to grind the 15 the next week which he did 1st try I beleive. The footage is in 16 and below. I filmed it from the top with my shitty camera. He was on World at the time. After that we went to Beverly and witnessed Arto, Trainwreck, Mouly, Ellington, Evan Hernandez and more session the rails for a second before gettin the boot. That was a cool day.
Pharmacy was like the first real skateshop of the High Desert that created a scene and Donny helped out many people during that era. Herman got hooked up, then Matt Allen, Tony Silva, Leo Romero. Then the Palmdale dudes started getting noticed (Marquis and Keelan). It was rad to see a lot dudes from that area get shine because it's kinda on the outskirts of where everything else is.
His old compound is a few miles from where I grew up, all the stories he says from that area make me laugh, I miss living out there...